The first yellow Jefferson plumbing van hit the Princeton roadways in 1947 when Norton Cornelius Jefferson began N.C. Jefferson. In the 1980s, his son, Bruce Jefferson, stepped in to help with the company before his father passed away.
In 1989, Bruce saw an opportunity. It seemed the residents of Princeton didn’t want to have to go out of town to look at supplies. It was then that Bruce opened up a showroom in town, and Jefferson Bath and Kitchen was born.
Now, Jefferson Bath and Kitchen serves the community up with a little bit of everything.
“We do everything from high end bathrooms to digging holes in your front yard,” Bruce said. “We do air conditioning, plumbing, heat, hot air, hot water and steam. There’re not too many guys around that do steam.”
You can find Bruce at his store in Princeton Junction accompanied by his daughter Jill Jefferson-Miller, who helps run the company. The father-daughter duo has had an active customer base of 6,000 within the last 3 years.
“I think my favorite part of working here is working with my dad every day,” Jill said.
Bruce said a lot of people nowadays go to chain stores and buy something there that looks like what Jefferson Bath and Kitchen sells, only cheaper. But he said they could be fooling themselves.
He said if customers are buying something at the big box stores that is genuinely of the same quality as what they offer, there’s a very good chance that Jefferson Bath and Kitchen can sell it for the same price, if not less.
“People go that route a lot for hot water heaters, too,” Bruce said. “They’ll buy a hot water heater at a big chain store, and then they’ll fix you up with an installer, and then the installer comes in and changes you extra for everything. By the time you’re done, you’ve probably paid a couple hundred dollars more than what we would have charged you.”
Jill said their company has a core of loyal customers who may see cheaper items online or at other stores, but they choose to stick with Jefferson Bath and Kitchen because they know they’re getting quality items that are guaranteed.
Bruce’s advice to customers is to remember they don’t just want a quick fix, and they get what you pay for.
“To us, it’s all about supporting local businesses,” Jill said. “That’s what we’re all about. We’re a family business, and we like to use local vendors and local people for all the stuff we do, even right down to our office supplies.”
The fact that Jefferson Bath and Kitchen is a local business is one of the key factors that helps keep its prices reasonable.
“Some plumbing contractors charge on a flat rate because they’re covering such big areas,” Bruce said. “I’ll talk to a plumber here in town that works for a flat-rate plumbing company, and he’ll tell me that his next call is Toms River, and then from Toms River he might go to South Amboy. They advertise in every phone book for the entire state of New Jersey, but they have a lot of traveling and it makes them a lot more expensive.”
It’s important for Jefferson Bath and Kitchen to keep their prices low, because they know money is tight.
“People like to save any way they can, and often that can be done through their water bill,” Jill said.
Jill said water conservation is a big trend going on right now. In the bath and kitchen world, water conservation deals with items such as low consumption toilets and faucets.
“People need to be careful with things like dripping faucets,” Bruce said. “A lot of people don’t even think about it, but it can really rack up your water bill.”
Bruce received a call recently from a man vacationing in Florida. The man’s water company had called him to let him know his water consumption was a lot higher than normal.
“That’s unusual,” Bruce said. “Most water companies don’t do that.”
The man had his neighbor check out his house to see what was causing the increase. Evidently, one of the toilets was running while he was away and there was a drippy faucet on the outside of the house that he didn’t know about.
Jefferson Bath and Kitchen went in to make the fixes and stop that increased water consumption.
Jill said although a dripping faucet may not seem like much to the everyday homeowner, just one drip can add up to thousands of gallons of water a year.
“We just try to help out our community and keep them informed,” Jill said.
Jefferson Bath and Kitchen is located at 43 Princeton-Hightstown Road in Princeton Junction. They’re open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information, call (609) 924-3624 or visit ncjefferson.com.
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